The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.

Friday, 23 August 2013

Word To Use Today: bouncer.

The word bouncer could easily have been a spot-the-frippet, but unfortunately Test Matches have developed a habit recently of avoiding Mondays.Yes, I'm talking cricket, here. Now, I realise that most of the world's knowledge of cricket comes from a novelty tea towel:

but cricket is really not difficult to understand. As so often, the last thing the jargon is designed to do is to make things clear to outsiders.The main idea of cricket is that someone throws a hard ball at three small upright sticks, and someone else stops the ball hitting the sticks by whacking it with a bat.A bouncer happens when a ball hits the ground quite a long way short of the batsman and then bounces up to the height of his chest or head. This is unnerving for the batsman, and occasionally also dangerous to him.
Ptok Bentoniczny

Ah, you will say, but surely such a high-bouncing ball won't go anywhere near the three little sticks the throwing guy is supposed to be trying to hit?Hmmm......to be honest I can't say that cricket has quite sorted that problem out, yet.Apart from cricket, (and, hard though it is for some people to believe, there is a world apart from cricket) a bouncer is someone who stops undesirables going into a club or restaurant, and who also ejects people who have got inside and begun to make a fuss.A bouncer is also a cheque written when there aren't funds enough for the bank to honour it.Hm. It's altogether a rather dubious word, bouncer, isn't it.Though not quite always:

Word To Use Today: bouncer. This word is probably an imitation of the sound something makes when it bounces.This post was inspired by THIS ONE.

2 comments:

Cor, sure wish somebody had've gifted me with that tea towel when I had a cricket-playing boyfriend in NZ.At least it would've kept me entertained while watching the game - hour after hour!For some reason, I still am not a huge fan!It's not hard game to understand, it's just bloody boring - says me at least! But I guess I still would rather see that kind of bouncer than those bully-looking ones!Maybe I'm just jealous I never got the kid variety! :)Just gonna bounce off to tidy up me kitchen now.Yeah, right!See what ya started!! :)